The Mocking Mirror
by agent000
Summary: Al believes the Bloody Mary legend, and Ed is determined to prove to him that there's no truth in it by performing it, but he's completely unaware of the world beyond the mirror. Written for Halloween.


_**Disclaimer: Somebody around here doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist. ((Leans in closer and whispers)) It's me!**_

"Don't be ridiculous, Al. That stuff doesn't happen." Edward laughed, making Al shrink into his shoes. His brother was almost always right about such things, and whenever their opinions contradicted, he preferred not to with his brother.

"But I heard it happened to a friend--"

"--Of a friend of a friend, right?" Edward eyed Al and snickered, making Al feel woozy. He already felt stupid enough, did his brother have to rub it in? "It's just an urban legend, Al. Urban legends aren't true."

"But what if it _was_ true?"

Edward raised an eyebrow. "What if it was true that reciting 'Bloody Mary' into the mirror summoned the mirror witch? Al, you're too old to believe in fairy tales."

Al folded his arms across his chest and sank into the couch, looking at the floor so he wouldn't have to see his brother's mocking face anymore. He had heard the story from a friend just that day, and he had wanted to share his concern with his brother since the two shared an understanding of such matters between each other. He hadn't expected to get mocked. Granted, it was an unscientific notion that such a thing could happen, but he and his brother had seen weirder things in their lifetimes.

Edward came and sat down by Al on the couch. "Tell you what, Al, I'll prove it wrong for you, then you won't have to be confused about it."

Al turned to look at Edward. "How do you plan to prove it wrong?"

Edward sat up away from Al and laughed again. "Why, by doing it of course!"

Al was horror struck and he shook his head. "No, no, Brother, don't do that! You have no idea what you're getting into!"

"Pbbt!" Edward blew a raspberry at Al, causing him to flinch away from the saliva. "_You_ have no idea what you're getting into, Al. These fairy stories are for uneducated folks, not people like us. You know there are no such things as witches and ghosts and magic mirrors."

Al put his hands in his lap and chose not to say anything in the hope of getting his brother to forget this nonsense. Perhaps if he said nothing, his brother would think he agreed with him.

Edward slapped Al on the knee and then stood up and brushed the wrinkles from his clothes. "So, Al, how am I supposed to do this ritual?"

Al's eyes went wide and he stood up as he balled his fists at his sides. "You can't be serious!"

"Of course I am," said Edward, "I have to set my little brother back on the path of logic."

Al shook his head. He wouldn't let his brother do this, and he wouldn't help him figure out how. There was too much risk involved, even though his brother couldn't see that. It seemed a bit stupid if one looked at it from a logical perspective, but so did the Gate of Truth, and they both knew that existed. The last thing Al wanted was for something to happen to his brother because he hadn't thought everything through before plunging in...like seemed to happen often.

"I'm not going to help you with that, Brother."

Edward snickered. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want you to do it." Al cleared his throat. His nervousness was starting to show, but he hoped his brother wouldn't notice it. "I-I'm not going to let you do it."

"Psh!" Edward rolled his eyes and put up his hand so his palm was facing toward Al. "It's not like you can stop me anyway. There are plenty of people who know about the Bloody Mary legend. I can get it from any one of them."

Al lunged forward. "Brother, don't do it! Please!"

Edward laughed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, Al, I won't do it."

"Promise?"

"Yeah, yeah...whatever."

Al sighed and let go of his brother, though he still felt nervous. There was a part of him that wasn't satisfied and was suspicious about something, but he wasn't sure what he was suspicious of. He couldn't make his brother say any more than he was willing to say, so while he hated to admit it, he had already done all he could.

He sat back down on the couch to find a way to ensure his brother did nothing stupid in trying to prove logic to him, while Edward walked out of the room.

* * *

Al worried too much about him. Didn't he think he could take care of himself? Okay, maybe he did get himself into trouble from time to time and he had to rely on Al to pull him out of it, but this was just a fairy tale he was dealing with. It wasn't like anything would happen, and he didn't like Al thinking something would. The sooner he could get Al to snap out of this gullible state, the better for him. Someone as sweet and naïve as Al might believe anything told him, which could cause trouble in life. He needed to bust this myth for his brother to pave the road for him later.

It wasn't hard to find the Bloody Mary legend and the ritual. He had picked up their address book and called the first person on the list, explained the situation, and asked them if they knew anything. They knew the entire myth. Score! Now Al couldn't keep him from doing it by withholding information. Once he had done it, Al would see everything was fine and go back to being skeptical like he should be. It wasn't safe to be as open minded as Al was.

Edward thanked the contact and hung up the phone, then went into the kitchen to find a candle. Chances were good they would have one in the junk drawer that had been partially burnt from the last power outage. The man hadn't said the candle needed to be new, just that it needed to be lit.

Sure enough, there was a white taper candle in the junk drawer that had been used. This would be the perfect thing to use for this. There was no need to use one of the good candles when they would use those for the holidays if this would do just as well.

Making sure Al didn't notice him, he crept up the stairs, into the bathroom, and shut the door. The man had said the room with the mirror needed to be darkened for the ritual to work, so Edward pulled the curtains closed and grabbed a blanket from his bedroom to throw over the curtain rod and ensure no light crept in. If he was going to prove anything to Al, he had to do everything 'right', or Al might make the argument things had not worked because he hadn't done it right.

Edward then grabbed a glass container from the cabinet over the sink and set the candle in it, and lit it with a match he had brought with him. There, everything was set. Now, time for the ritual.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again to view his surroundings. It was dark in the room, the only light being provided by the candle in front of the mirror. It was a bit eerie just from the setup. Perhaps what people saw in these rituals came from their imaginations due to the strange arrangement. That made sense. The human mind could generate a lot of strange things in such a situation.

"Bloody Mary..." he said, after a brief pause, then he took a deep breath and spun around as he had been instructed. When he faced the mirror again, he said, "Bloody Mary" again and continued to spin around. At this rate, he was going to get dizzy. Perhaps that was another contributer to the strange things that would happen during this ritual.

Nine, ten, eleven, twelve...he was almost done with the ritual, and then he could go downstairs and tell Al it was all nonsense. Just one more time. He spun around a thirteenth time and upon catching his reflection in the mirror, he said, "Bloody Mary." There, that was over with. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders. Nothing had happened, just like he had predicted, so now he could go and get Al and...

Something flashed out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to see what had caught his attention. He looked at the mirror, but didn't see anything, and there was nothing else to see in this room. He sighed and then laughed. His mind was playing tricks on him after that creepy ritual. No wonder people liked to do it.

He reached down in front of the mirror to grab the candle, but before he could pick it up, a hand reached out of nowhere and grabbed his. On impulse, he panicked and pulled against the hand, but it held firm. Where had that hand come from? It was Al, right? Yes, it had to be Al coming to interfere with him. How annoying. He should have just stayed downstairs where he...

Edward looked up and his face turned white. A hateful face stared at him out of the mirror. He had to be dreaming. Or hallucinating. Such things didn't happen. There was no such thing as a mirror witch; any logical person knew that, but there was still something on his hand, and he again struggled to get free, but the person was too strong and he couldn't break their hold.

Then the person...the woman?...began to pull on his arm, and as she disappeared back into the mirror, his arm disappeared with her. His left arm was now in the mirror, but he couldn't see it on the other side. He struggled against her hold, but felt the edges of the glass of the mirror cut into his shoulder. It was still solid, even though he was passing through it. How could that be possible? It was unscientific!

His shoulder began to make its way into the mirror now, and he could see that regardless of what he thought was or was not happening, he was losing. If she managed to pull his head into the mirror, he wouldn't be able to scream for help. He had to alert somebody, even though he hated the thought of scaring Al, but what was he to do?

Edward tilted back his head to buy himself a second or two and screamed, "Help! Al...somebody! Hel-" He was jerked forward and felt his head pull through the mirror, cutting off his scream. What did this crazy woman want with him? Why did she want him in the mirror with her? Had Al heard him? Would he get help? Could he do anything? He hoped he hadn't just put Al in danger...he might have done so without thinking about the consequences. Stupid Edward, always acting before he had the time to think things out.

The bathroom door swung open and the lights flicked on, and Edward felt himself get shoved out of the mirror, but at the same time he felt a tearing sensation within his chest. She was taking something from him, he had no idea what or how important it was to him, but as he was falling, he could do nothing about it.

"Brother!" Al cried, and he rushed over to where Edward had fallen and slapped him on the face. "Brother, are you okay? Say something to me! Please, speak up!"

Edward moaned and put his hand on his head. He had a massive headache. He should have listened to Al and never attempted such a foolish ritual. That had to have been a hallucination, but it had seemed real enough to be disturbing.

"Brother! Brother! Say something, please!"

Couldn't Al tell he was waking up? Why was he so panicked? Edward opened his eyes and looked out to where he could see Al kneeling beside his body...but he was not in it. What had happened? Why wasn't he in his body as he should be? He didn't feel dead.

"Al! I'm over-" Edward stepped forward to try and get to Al and bumped his head on the air in front of him. He cursed under his breath as he rubbed his already sore forehead and he looked around to see what had stopped his advancement. He couldn't see anything in front of him, but to his sides he saw what appeared to be some sort of gilded framework hanging in mid-space. He realized with a growing horror he was trapped inside the mirror.

Edward pounded on the space in front of him, but it didn't budge. "Al! Al, listen to me! I'm inside the mirror! For goodness' sakes, look at me!"

Al didn't respond, which infuriated Edward. The mirror witch had fled when Al had turned on the light, and though she had taken him into the mirror with her, she wasn't going to come out where there was light. What if Al left the room and turned off the light? Would she come back to retrieve him?

Edward pounded hard enough on the mirror glass to send vibrations rattling through the air on both sides. "Al! Look up! I'm right here!"

Al turned around, and upon seeing the sight in the mirror, his jaw dropped. "...Brother?"

Edward didn't know what to say, so he just nodded. He wasn't sure Al could hear him anyway. They were in two different worlds, and he wasn't sure how to cross between them. He was sure his body had not been damaged in the process, but if he couldn't get out of the mirror and get back to it, he would be no more than a ghost.

Al placed his hands on the edges of the mirror and leaned against it. "Brother...how did this happen?"

"I-I..." Edward choked on his words. "I was stupid."

A somber look crossed over Al's features as he leaned in closer. "You did the Bloody Mary ritual, didn't you?"

Edward shivered at the memory which was still fresh on his mind and nodded. It seemed Al could hear him after all. He didn't know why Al hadn't been able to hear him before, but maybe he couldn't be heard unless Al paid attention. He didn't know how mirror world rules worked.

Al sighed and stood back from the mirror and put his finger on his chin. "So you somehow got your soul trapped in the mirror. Now how do we get you out?"

Edward sighed and rested his head on the invisible space that separated the two of them. "I don't know, Al...but please, don't turn out the light. She's afraid of the light."

Al's eyebrows rose. "She? You don't mean the mirror witch?"

Edward sighed and sunk down to his knees. He felt so stupid for all he had done and now having to admit it all to Al. "Yes, her. She dragged me in here, and she let go when you turned on the light. I don't know if she plans to come back and finish me off, so don't leave me in the dark."

Al shook his head. "I won't. I won't even leave your side...but...how do we get you out of there? Do you think it would work if I broke the mirror?"

Edward leapt to his feet and waved his hands around. "No, not under any circumstances, Al! Seven years back luck!"

"Heh," Al said as he bit the nail of his thumb and turned back to face Edward. Al was worried, but that comment seemed to add a hint of amusement to his voice. "Since when are _you_ superstitious, Brother?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "Oh, maybe since I got sucked into the mirror?"

Al nodded without saying anything in response, seeming to understand that explanation well enough, and then he began pacing back and forth in the room.

"Hmmm..." said Al, looking back at Edward as if to check whether he was still there or not. "With you in there, that mirror is haunted, isn't it? I bet we could get you out of there if we brought in an exorcist."

Edward's eyes went wide with horror. "B-But Al...my soul might go off to another plane if I'm exorcised from here. I don't want to _stay_ dead, I want to live!"

Al sighed and ran his fingers through his bangs. He seemed conflicted about something. "I know, Brother, but the best we can do is to call and ask what they can do. Even if we can't do anything but evict your soul from the mirror into the afterlife, that still has to be better than the fate you're suffering now at the hands of the mirror witch."

Edward growled under his breath and banged his head against the glass of the mirror. "D-- it, Al, I hate it when you're right.

* * *

Al was not going to leave his brother alone, not even for a five minute phone call. Who knew what would happen in that time? He lifted the mirror off the wall and carried it out with him as he went downstairs to the foyer where the phone was. He had to leave his brother's body upstairs for the time being because he couldn't carry that and the mirror. That was unfortunate, but he had to prioritize, and his brother's soul came first.

He set the mirror beside the phone table so he could keep an eye on his brother, and he picked up the phone and called the operator. He had no idea who to call about such a thing since he doubted the operator would have a directory of exorcists in their logs, but perhaps some local religious organization would know something, or a practitioner of a spiritual branch of alchemy.

The operator gave him all the numbers pertaining to his search criteria, so he thanked her, hung up, and dialed the first number. The person on the other end of the line picked it up after three rings, and Al took a deep breath and said, "I'm going to be blunt. Do you happen to have any exorcists in your organization?"

"What?!" asked the person.

Al sighed. "I guess not. I won't waste your time then." Al hung up and dialed the next number on the list. They gave the same reaction, as did as the next number, and the next. This seemed like a list of dead ends. Not enough people in Amestris believed in ghosts, let alone that anything could be done about them.

Finally, he called a number for a spiritual alchemist. When the man answered the phone, Al repeated his practiced phrase. "This might sound like a strange question, but I'm going to be blunt. Are you an exorcist?"

There was a brief pause, but the man didn't react like everyone else had. There was a slight chuckle and then the man said, "I don't believe I've been asked in a while."

"Heh," Al said, amused at the man's reaction, but not enough to be happy. "So does that mean you are?"

"I do exorcisms from time to time, yes," said the man, "Why, do you have a pesky ghost you need me to get rid of?"

Al sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I'm afraid it's much worse than that." He explained all the events of the evening as best he could, though he was talking too fast, and the man had to stop him and ask for clarification.

Al gave the man all the information he had, and the man had gone silent, Al assumed to think. It felt like they were wasting an eternity every second the man didn't respond, but there was nothing more he could do. He had to wait.

The man cleared his throat and spoke up. "I'll be at your house in fifteen minutes, okay? Don't let that mirror, or your brother, out of your sight, got it?"

"I got it," said Al, "I wouldn't have anyway."

"Good," said the man, "I'll see you soon." He hung up, so Al followed his example and then turned to Edward.

"He said he'll be here in fifteen minutes."

"I don't suppose he can fix this?"

Al shrugged. "I hope he can. He didn't say what he could do, but he's an exorcist."

Edward rolled his eyes and huffed. "Some religious zealot, no doubt."

"No, actually, this man's an alchemist."

"Heh, really," said Edward, not amused. "So now the so-called scientists are going after spooks."

A corner of Al's mouth rose up. "Just be glad this one is."

Following the man's order, he'd identified himself a Gerald, Al pulled up a chair and sat across from the mirror so Edward wouldn't be out of his sight for a second. If anything was to happen, he wanted to know about it the instant it happened. He couldn't do anything about it if he did know, but he would worry about it otherwise, and he was already worried enough.

Some minutes later, Al didn't keep track of how long, Gerald showed up and let himself into the house. Al was grateful for that, since he didn't want to get up to let him in and turn his back to his brother for even a second. That witch might be waiting for him to do so, and she might only need a split second to do whatever she wanted to with his brother, and then he'd never see him again. He didn't know how these things worked and if such a thing were true, but he wasn't going to take the chance. He knew something or someone had pulled his brother's soul into the mirror, and now his brother couldn't get out, and that was more than enough to leave him cautious about the situation.

Gerald came and stood beside Alphonse and put his hands on his hips as he regarded the mirror and the boy in it. "I can see your problem," he said. "I think I can get him out of there, but the results will be unpredictable as to where he'll end up. Was any damage done to his body?"

Al shook his head. "Not that I can see. I think his soul was just torn out of it."

Gerald nodded. "Okay, there's still hope for him to return to it then. Where is it?"

"Still in the bathroom," Al said. "I brought the mirror down here so I could use the phone without leaving Brother alone."

"Understandable, and wise. It's difficult to say what that witch wants with him, but it appears she won't do whatever it is as long as you're around and in the light." Al nodded, but didn't bother to say anything. He wasn't sure what could be said about the situation anyway.

"Now," he said as he grabbed the mirror and caused a nervous yelp from Edward. "Show me where his body is. If we have any chance of restoring him to normal, we're going to have to put the mirror and the body in the same room with each other."

"Right," said Al, and he sprung from his seat and ran up the stairs as Gerald followed behind him. He hoped the man could do all he said.

* * *

Edward hated the idea of some stranger carrying the mirror he was trapped in. He wished Al had insisted he carry it instead of Gerald, but he got no say in the matter. He sighed and leaned his forehead against the mirror glass. Being carried didn't jostle him in his world at all. His footing was stable no matter what happened to the mirror, but the images he saw through the mirror were a bit jumpy while it was being carried. It seemed the mirror was a portal between worlds, and not the world itself, but it didn't make the thought of being trapped outside of his own world any more pleasant. He wanted to go home.

Gerald lay the mirror down on the bathroom tile beside his body, which he could vaguely make out by the shapes towering above the mirror. It probably looked like he was lying on his back from Al's position, though Edward was standing up. It was only the connection between the two worlds that kept changing, not the world itself. It was so strange. He would have been much more intrigued by the situation if he hadn't been terrified for his existence.

Gerald reached into his pocket and pulled something out of it. Edward had to strain to see what it was, and as the man brought it closer to the mirror, Edward saw that it was a red crayon. Why would this man be using crayons when chalk was more effective in alchemy? When the man started drawing on the surface of the glass, Edward sighed and nodded his understanding. Of course, chalk would not stay on glass well, so the man had resorted to something that would. How did this guy plan to get him out of here? Just breaking the glass wouldn't do it, since Edward wasn't _in_ the mirror, but on the other side of it. Destroying the mirror would not destroy the world he was trapped in, but destroy the portal between them. He hoped Gerald understood that.

"What are you doing?" asked Al. Edward breathed a sigh of relief. At least someone had remembered to voice their concern rather than just think it.

The man smiled at Al and continued with the his job. "I'm an alchemist. I don't know how much you boys know about alchemy, but a transmutation circle helps to channel the flow of energy so that-"

"Yes, yes, we know that!" Edward interrupted. The man looked at him in surprise, and Edward rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "We're alchemists too, but we don't know anything about this stuff to do with spooks."

"So you've never studied spiritual alchemy. That's a shame," said Gerald. "That will make explanations a bit easier though. What I'm drawing is a circle designed to capture a spirit so I can pull you through the glass. If it works as well as I hope, you'll remain bound while I put you back in your body. If it doesn't, you'll move on as soon as I free you from the mirror. Either way, you should be able to get out of there."

Edward huffed. "For being an alchemist, you're pretty unsure of the results."

"That's the unfortunate thing about spiritual alchemy," said Gerald, "It's not bound by the laws of science, and can go in many different ways, no matter how many times you practice it."

"Great," said Edward, "For all I know, I might end up in Never Never Land." The man chuckled, but didn't respond, which just unnerved Edward even more. He was hoping the man would offer a rebuttal to his sarcasm, but he hadn't, and that meant it was possible he could end up in some strange place and never be able to get back. He wondered if it would be better to stay in the mirror so he could at least have the guarantee of seeing Al. Maybe that woman wouldn't come back to fetch him and would just let him spend eternity staring out the portal. That seemed unrealistic, but he wasn't much in the mood for thinking logically at the moment when he was facing the worst possible illogic he had ever encountered.

Once Gerald had finished drawing on the mirror, he put the crayon back into his pocket and pulled out something else...a paintbrush? He then turned and rifled through his bag of things and pulled out a container of some sort and a small knife. Edward blanched. If the man needed to cut something, then chances were this ritual would involve blood, and he hated alchemy that involved blood.

The man turned to Al. "You two are brothers by blood, right?"

Al nodded. "Yeah, why?"

Edward pounded on the mirror. "You leave him alone, you--"

The man snapped his attention back to Edward. "I'm not going to hurt him, I only need a drop of blood, unless you'd like me to not make all the provisions possible of getting you back into your body." Edward growled under his breath and ground his teeth, but there was nothing else he could do. He had to let Al make this choice himself, even if he didn't enjoy the thought of Al going through with it.

Al nodded. "Whatever it takes," and he extended a finger and let the man slice it open. Al yelped a bit, making Edward feel empty at seeing any harm come to his brother, but he had to keep reminding himself this wasn't much of a sacrifice, and Al had made the decision to do it, but it bothered him that Al had to even get involved. The man grabbed Al's finger and squeezed it until a drop of blood fell into the container he had pulled out earlier.

He handed Al a piece of cloth to press to his finger to ease the bleeding, then he took his knife and his container over to Edward's body. He drew back the sleeve on Edward's right arm, then stopped and stared before he whistled. "It looks like this isn't the first time you've seen trouble." Edward sighed and nodded. It figured the man would discover his auto-mail like that, as much as he tried to hide it from view.

The man grabbed Edward's other arm and pulled it toward him. Pleased to see this arm was made of flesh, he took out his knife and sliced open one of the fingers and squeezed the blood into the container as well. It took longer to do this with his body than with Al, but Edward supposed that was because Al's heart was still beating and pushing the blood through his veins. Edward's heart was not, since it had no soul to keep it alive. That body would feel cold and dead by now.

The man then put his paintbrush into the container and stirred the contents around. There must have been more than two drops of blood in there or he wouldn't have been able to stir it like that, but hopefully the man didn't plan to bind his soul to his body with blood from outside of the family. That could cause complications. Any good alchemist knew that.

Gerald pulled his paintbrush out of the container and began painting around Edward's body, and Edward was relieved to see the substance was brownish, not red. It didn't have blood in it, except for his and Al's two drops, but it seemed to have a lot of herbal and mineral substances mixed into it. He had no way of telling what the formula was since he couldn't get close enough to inspect it, but even at this distance, he could tell it wasn't full of blood.

Gerald finished with the paintbrush and he turned back to face Edward in the mirror. He took a deep breath and placed his hands on the transmutation circle he had drawn. "You might hate me for a bit, but please, bear with it." Gerald then closed his eyes and light flashed from the transmutation circle. The next thing Edward knew, a bunch of what seemed like long, clear arms, or perhaps they were more like tendrils, jumped out at him from the mirror glass and wrapped around him, immobilizing him.

He hated this. The man might be trying to help them, but did he have to do it in such an annoying way? Edward struggled against his bonds, but the things wrapped around him held fast, and he could not shake himself loose. They were just too strong, and they were starting to pull themselves back into the mirror from whence they came, dragging him with them.

His body plastered up against the glass, but would go no further. He just could not get through that mirror, but the tendril things were insisting he must go. They seemed to have no breaking point and would continue to pull until something gave, but he suspected he would be pulled apart before the mirror would let him through.

"Stop it!" yelled Edward, his voice muffled from being pressed up against the glass. "I hate this, stop it!"

"Sorry," said Gerald, but the movement of his bonds didn't slow down. Edward continued to try to struggle, but they only got stronger the harder they pulled, and the pain increased with each passing second, or what he suspected to be a second. He wasn't sure how to calculate time in this dimension.

Al went wide-eyed. "Are you hurting him?"

The man gave a half nod. "He is in pain, but there's no other way to get him out of there." Al flashed his eyes between the alchemist and his brother in the mirror, but seemed to not be able to make up his mind as to what to do. Edward wished he would kill Gerald about now and end the pain for him, but Al wasn't doing it, and Edward's pain only got worse.

Edward grit his teeth as his forehead was squeezed into the mirror face. He heard something begin to crack. This was it for him. He was at the end of what he could take, and he was going to fall apart now. The cracking sound continued to get louder and more obnoxious, and Edward moaned in agony, it hurt so badly.

Al gasped and ran over to look into the mirror. "The mirror's cracking!"

"It is," said Gerald without any show of emotion.

The _mirror_ was cracking, not him? Was this the intent? He hoped if that was the intent, he would be able to get out of this realm before the mirror shattered, and Gerald wouldn't inherit the bad luck that was sure to follow from breaking a mirror. Now he'd been reduced to thinking about stupid superstitions. He was hopeless. This whole situation was nothing but hopeless.

The remainder of what had kept him locked in this world shattered and sent him hurtling forward before he had time to react. He felt himself falling through space, and once he had the chance to catch onto what was happening, he looked around to see where he was. It looked as though he was ascending past a skyscraper and half the windows were lit, and he could see into them. Each window held a picture of some scene or action, something that was going on there. Other worlds? That was a guess at best, but since there was no one here to tell him otherwise, it was the best he could do.

He looked overhead and saw a window drawing close to him and getting larger as it did so. If he continued in this forward momentum, he was going to pass through that window, which wouldn't be a problem if it was the right one. He felt a lurch in his gut. That wasn't the right one. He didn't know how he knew that, but he just did. He would indeed wind up in Never Never Land if he didn't do something fast, but what could he do in this state? He was still bound by those clear tendril things, making movement quite difficult.

He had to buy himself some time to think, and anything might do the trick, so he threw his body forward and did a half spin in the air, which caused his head to point downward, if there was such a thing as downward in this realm. He continued to drift upwards from the momentum for a few meters, and then he stopped moving altogether. A shiver ran through him. That was too close, and now he was stuck in this nether world until he could find out how to get elsewhere. Where was his world, and how could he get to it?

He let out a sigh...he wasn't sure how he was capable of sighing in this form, but it seemed he could, and he closed his eyes, hoping this would all go away by the time he opened them. _Al, where are you?_

Edward felt wind tickle his cheeks, and he opened his eyes to find out what had caused that sensation. He was moving again, but this time to some window off to the side. What had caused the sudden movement?

A lone window pulled itself away from the background and moved into his path, growing bigger as he approached it. Should he fight it? He didn't want to go through the wrong one. How would he be able to tell for sure if this was the right window?

Al's face appeared in the window, tears running down his cheeks, as he called, "Brother, where did you go?" Ed's face softened. He was heading for the right world now, and this would all be fixed soon so he could comfort Al. He closed his eyes as he let himself fall through the window, a warm embrace compared with the cold and austere world of the mirror.

Edward shot out the other side of the window and his momentum carried him up until he smacked face first into the ceiling. He yelped as he realized where he was, when gravity took control and he plummeted back to the ground. He landed with an "Oomph!" He was back in his and Al's bathroom, and he was relieved to be here and not in that mirror world. Ghost or not, it felt so good to be home.

Al's eyes darted around the room. "What just happened?" Al didn't know he was here? He'd been able to see him in the mirror, but he couldn't see him now?

Gerald smiled. "Your brother just made it through."

Al's face looked shocked. "You mean he's here? Now?" Gerald nodded, so Al asked, "Why can't I see him?"

Gerald shrugged. "It seems you don't have spiritual sight, so you can't see ghosts."

"But I could see him in the mirror!"

Gerald chuckled. "Everyone can see ghosts in the mirror."

That explained it. Edward was just a ghost now and had to follow ghostly rules, so Al would not be able to see him under normal circumstances. He didn't like that, but being around Al without being able to be seen would be much better than being seen in the mirror but trapped there. At least he wasn't trapped in this world...or was he? Edward squirmed as he realized the bonds were still on him. Why wouldn't they come off, and why wasn't that man taking them off yet? He was out of the mirror, wasn't it time to be released?

Gerald looked at him. "You don't need to struggle anymore. There's no one here to harm you."

That was a matter of opinion, seeing as how he'd built up quite a collection of enemies in his life, but all those enemies had only wanted to see him dead, not to harm his soul in some way.

"Why won't you release me?"

Gerald rolled his eyes. "I thought you wanted to get back into your body."

"I do, but-"

"Then just stop it. I need to keep you bound until you're back in your body or your soul might fly off to the afterlife."

"Oh," said Edward, and he stopped struggling. The man could have told him all that before and saved him the trouble of trying to figure out what was going on. It would have made it easier to deal with.

"Now," said Gerald, "This will hurt too, but bear with it. It's the only way to restore you to normal." He reached down and grabbed the Edward bundle and placed him so he was lying on top of his body. He had been right before, his body was cold and dead now. He could feel no life emanating from it, though he hadn't expected that. He _was_ the life of the body, yet he wasn't in it. He wriggled a bit, trying to get as comfortable as he could, though there wasn't much he could do about the situation. His body felt like cold rubber beneath him, not lifelike in the least.

"Okay," said Gerald, "Let's do this." He put his hands down on the transmutation circle that had been drawn around his body, and light flared up again. The energy flowed into him, probably more so than his body was receiving, since the circle had been geared to manipulate spirit. Gerald couldn't take a chance at performing human transmutation, after all.

The world he was used to was torn away from him, and he found himself in a dark void comprised only of himself and his body, staring eye to eye at each other. The man wouldn't have sent him off dimension-hopping again after having just retrieved him from that other world, so this must have been a transmutation-induced hallucination, but it was creepy, and he shuddered.

His body looked at him with soulless eyes, then offered a sinister smile. "It's time we became one again, my soul. I'm rather hungry."

Edward panicked and turned the other way and ran, but he had no idea where to run to. There was blackness everywhere. There had to be a place where he could get away. He was not going to be devoured by anything, not even his own body. Would he cease to exist if something ate his soul? He didn't want to find out. There had to be a way out of this place.

Maniacal laughter sounded behind him, and he cringed at hearing his own voice chasing him. "You can run, my soul, but you cannot hide. I will catch you."

Edward chanced a look to see how far his body was from him, and he paled at seeing it was only a few feet away, and taking its time about moving those few feet. It was toying with him, and could outrun him. Why could a physical object outrun a spiritual one in a spiritual realm? It didn't make any sense, but he knew what he was seeing.

His body laughed again. "Do you give up, soul? I promise I will devour you quickly."

He could not allow that. He turned back around and ran again, but there was still nothing to tell him which way he was running or how far. The ominous laughter started again, and a hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder. Edward struggled against it and tried to shake it loose, but this hand, his own hand, knew his tricks way too well and was able to compensate for them. Every move he made for escape was instantly blocked.

His body's other hand seized him around the waist and began to pull him in closer to his body. The hand on his shoulder wrapped itself around the front of his chest and pinned his arms to his sides. He was still not going to go down without a fight, and he struggled within his own body's grasp while screaming and kicking. His own body was too strong for him and knew all of his weaknesses, which it exploited, and Edward couldn't seem to remember any of his own body's weaknesses to use against it while he was in peril. Why did minds have to flee at the time one needed them most?

His body chuckled one more time, and then said, "Good. Let's end this." His body sunk its teeth into his shoulder, sending a pain through his entire left side. Edward howled and continued to kick, but it seemed to get him nowhere. He turned his head to look at his body, and what met his eyes made whatever courage he had remaining leave him. His body's mouth had grown so huge as to be disproportionate on his face, and had now gotten a hold of his arm and was in the process of swallowing it.

The pores on the surface of his body's skin erupted into small mouths, each equipped with a full set of fangs, and each screaming its own little high-pitched screams of hunger. Edward shivered and screamed at the gruesome sight just before he realized it was worse than just the sight of it, because each of those little mouths was hungry and was intent on eating him. He _had_ to get away, _now_!

He kicked his leg, but the instant his leg touched against his body's leg, it was seized by the thousands of little mouths and Edward could not pull it away. He screamed as the things pulled away at chunks of his soul as though they were bits of meat and the substance of his leg disappeared into what he assumed was a collective stomach where everything that was being eaten of his soul went to. There would be nothing left of him at this rate!

His body's chest behind him burst open now with little mouths and dug into his back. He screamed and tried to pull away, but they held him fast and began to gnaw away at him. A few seconds later, or what he guessed to be a few seconds later, he glanced down at his own chest and saw little of it remained, and what did was being devoured by the myriads of hungry mouths all over his body. He had already lost his arm and his leg and now most of his chest, and the rest of his soul was on the way to being devoured except for his head. If he didn't get out of here, and fast, he was going to be eaten up and wiped from existence. He wasn't sure this was a hallucination anymore. It felt much too painful to be all in his head.

Just then, he felt teeth sink into the back of his head. The large mouth had decided to come after the one part that had been left untouched. Edward screamed one final scream as the mouth worked its teeth over his head, nibbling at various parts of his face until the entire head and neck were inside the mouth. The creature's—Edward would not do it the justice of referring to it as his own body anymore—raised up its tongue and pushed his head and neck back into its throat. The last bit of what made him who he was had just been swallowed, and there was nothing he could do about it. He was fading from existence, and fast. Even along the throat, there were little mouths that tore what was left of him into tiny pieces, and the more he lost of himself, the less conscious he became. Soon everything was nothing more than a blur, and after that, he lost consciousness altogether.

* * *

Edward awoke to the feeling of something smacking at his cheek. Was something coming to devour him again? He flailed, but he could barely move. He felt...heavy...somehow. He had probably been weighed down to keep him from escaping. It surprised him that he still existed at all.

Edward opened his eyes and light flooded into them and blinded him, but after blinking a few times, it began to come into focus and he could see again. Al was standing over him, holding Ed's head in his hands, looking at him with concern.

"Brother, are you okay?"

Edward gulped. He hadn't expected to wake up and see his brother again after that ordeal, and he felt tears begin to prick at his eyes. "A-Al?"

A tear ran down Al's face. "Brother!" Al threw his arms around Ed's neck and hugged him so he couldn't breathe for a moment. Wait, he needed to breathe? That could only mean one thing...

"I-I'm back in my body?"

Al nodded. "It took him a long time to pull it off. He said something about you running and struggling against him."

Edward shuddered. Al had no idea what he had just seen, and he was never going to tell him, for fear Al would be traumatized by it.

"Why did you run, Brother? It would have taken less time if you hadn't."

"I-I..." His voice trailed off. He wasn't sure how to explain without telling what had happened.

"He was probably hallucinating," said Gerald, "That happens sometimes."

"I...yeah...I guess..." Edward was still not sure whether to believe all that was nothing more than a hallucination, since it had felt so real, but he was so grateful to not be experiencing whatever it was any longer.

"Let me guess," said Gerald, "Did your body devour your soul? That seems to be the most common one."

Edward swallowed, but didn't respond. It was too creepy for him to even articulate. Al stared at him with a concerned gaze, and was no doubt reading everything off his face the way Al was so good at doing. "Your body swallowed your soul? That must've been terrifying! No wonder you ran."

"Eh...yeah...can we go somewhere else? These tiles aren't comfortable."

"Um, yes, of course," said Al, and he placed his arm under Edward's shoulders and helped him to a sitting position. Gerald then came over and grabbed one of Edward's arms and put it around his shoulders, and Al grabbed the other, and the two hoisted Edward up onto his feet. He had thought it silly of them to do such a thing until he was standing on his feet and realized why they went to the trouble. He could barely move, and he was freezing. He knew he would regain control of his body in time, but for the moment, he needed of help.

They led him to his bedroom and set him down in his bed. Al turned to Gerald and said, "So, how much do I owe you?"

Gerald shook his head. "I don't accept payment for situations like this. I consider it my sacred duty."

Al nodded. "That's sweet of you, but you just saved my brother's life. Surely you'll let us do something in return."

"I'll tell you what," said Gerald, placing a hand on Al's shoulder. "Should I ever need the services of an ordinary alchemist, I'll call on one of you, okay? Equivalent Exchange."

Edward snorted and placed a hand on his forehead. He was starting to warm up now that his soul was back in his body, but he was still shivering. "That's not equivalent and you know it."

The man smiled. "Maybe so, but I don't care. I'm just glad I could be of service." Without another word, he tapped Al on the shoulder, then turned and left before they could argue with him further. That was indeed an unusual man, not like all the religious zealots Al had called before. It was admirable, even though Edward hated all the pain he had to go through to return to normal.

Edward began to drift off to sleep, when Al said, "Oh yeah, I'd better go and get Kitty inside now that you're safe and sound."

Edward placed both of his hands over his face and muffled a cry of alarm. "No, please, not the cat!"

Al looked at him. "What's wrong with Kitty?"

Edward sighed. "I don't want to see any black cats for at least a week."

Al chuckled. "Now you're just getting weird, Brother. Kitty won't hurt you."

"Ergh," said Edward, "Just don't let me see her for a while, okay? I need my sleep."

"I understand," said Al, who patted Edward's hand and turned to walk out the door. "Get some good rest. That was a trying ordeal."

Edward relaxed his hands as he began to drift into sleep again. That had been a trying ordeal indeed, and he was never going to do something so stupid again without researching it first. He had learned his lesson from the one time, and didn't need it repeated.

He cracked his eyes open and stared across the room to the little mirror mounted on the wall. That was the one they would have to use now that the bathroom mirror had been shattered. He hoped Gerald wouldn't get bad luck over that.

Edward jumped when for a split second, he thought he saw a cruel face look out at him from the mirror, but it vanished just as quickly. He rolled over and went back to sleep. It had probably just been his imagination.

_**Heh heh, what can I say? I was originally writing this to be the 6th chapter of "To Believe in a Ghost", but then it just got so creepy that I decided it should not go in the collection with all the benevolent ghost stories, and it's near Halloween anyway, so I figured it'd do better as it's own story, hehe. The "Bloody Mary" ritual is actually an urban legend, but a lot of that stuff in that story was just artistic license. I honestly don't know where the hallucination scene came from, hehe, but, well, my mind is a scary place. I seriously think like that all the time, though I don't normally write that way for obvious reasons, hehe. This fic is the closest I've ever come to portraying my weird mind accurately. ((snickers)) Hope you enjoyed the voyage into my crazy mind and safely made it out.**_

_**Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you around for my less creepy but still supernatural stories when I get around to uploading them, hehe. If you like this style though, let me know. I need to know the reception I get for this sort of thing before I'll expose my mind THAT much again. ((laughs))**_


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